Husky sells first Atlantic Canada crude cargo bound for China

CALGARY, Alberta, Feb 7 (Reuters) - Husky Energy has sold its first cargo of crude oil from its offshore Atlantic Canada operations bound for China, a company spokesman said on Tuesday.

Spokesman Mel Duvall said the one-million-barrel cargo from Husky's White Rose field would be shipped out of Newfoundland Transshipment Limited's Whiffen Head terminal this month.

It is very unusual for Atlantic Canadian crude to make its way to China given the logistics and cost involved, but low shipping freight rates have helped make the deal viable.

Most Atlantic Canada crude is shipped to refineries in the United States and Europe.

"This is the first one we have done and we will just have to see in the future," Duvall said. "It just worked out that all the pieces of the puzzle fit at this point in terms of freight rates and a buyer looking for oil."

Duvall declined to say which company had bought the crude, or what route it would take to China.

The deal was first reported by Platts, which said the crude will head to NuStar's Statia Terminal in St. Eustatius, where it will be co-loaded with an unspecified Latin crude grade on to a ship bound for China, likely a VLCC. (Editing by James Dalgleish)